Perfect Fourth

The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics are finally over. These games were a unique one, marked by scandals, politics and frustrations leading up to and continuing on during the games, such as celebrities boycotting the Olympics, accusations of China's underage athletes, and a Canadian medal dry-spell in the first week of the Olympics.

In the end however, good ol' Canada pulled through with a total of 18 medals, 3 gold, 9 silver and 6 bronze medals, our biggest medal haul since 1992, or at least that's what I read in the star yesterday... I think.

I personally enjoyed these games a lot. Why? Well, 4 years ago I was a bit younger and had less appreciation for the Olympic summer games. Now that I think about it (it could just be my um... short term uh memory loss), I don't recall anything from the 2004 Olympics games at Athens, probably because I watched very little of it on TV. Nevertheless, these games were quite interesting, with lots of medal upsets, Michael Phelps emergence onto the world stage as the best swimmer (and some argue, the best Olympian), Adam van Koeverden's tragedy-turned-redemption, and the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies, the scale of which has not been seen in any previous Olympics. Too bad I missed hammer throw... and javelin throw... and long jump and pole vault... and... hehe I'll just wait a couple more years and visit London to see the 2012 games in person!

Some notables from this month's Olympics:

• Simon Whitfield's from-behind silver medal in Men's Individual Triathlon; he was the first man to get a gold medal in this event when it was introduced in 2000 at the Sydney Olympic games, and he scored again this year when he placed second behind a unbelievable Jim Frodeno who took the gold
• Carol Huynh, wrestling for Canada's second (although most people thought it was the first) medal of the games
• Alexandre Despatie, Canada's diving mascot who came back from a disappointing 5th place finish in 3m synchro to take the silver in the 3m springboard competition
• Priscilla Lopes-Schliep's bronze medal victory in Women's 100 Metre Hurdles; she was relatively unknown coming into the games and winning this event was a breakthrough for her and Canada
• Scott Frandsen and David Calder's second place finish in Rowing Men's Pair; these two were the first to bring home a medal for Canada, just minutes before Carol Huynh's silver... We love Canadian rowing.

Anyways watch out for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, right here in CANADA!!!!! Be excited. We always pwn in the winter.

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kamster